Wockhardt's Huzaifa Khorakiwala to launch an angel fund to support healthcare companies

It will raise its corpus in multiple rounds and expects to close the first round by March 2017, raising more than half the total amount.Supraja Srinivasan | ET Bureau | December 13, 2016, 07:14 IST

Corporate India is making its presence felt in the startup world, one step at a time. Huzaifa Khorakiwala, executive director at Wockhardt and part of the promoter family of the group, is ready to don the investor’s hat.

Khorakiwala will launch a healthcare-focused angel fund ‘Health Passion Fund’ with a corpus of Rs 125 crore (along with a green-shoe option), to support startups in the field of healthcare.

“Technically, the fund is not a Wockhardt-related fund and does not have any connection with the company. Our focus is slightly bent towards technology because that is where we believe we can add more value,” Khorakiwala, founder of the Health Passion Fund, told ET.

Khorakiwala, who will launch the fund in his personal capacity, believes the fund’s sector-focused approach will allow better integration of portfolio companies for exit, growth and further funding within the next 2-3 years.

The fund’s registration process is underway. Khorakiwala will approach the market to get on board limited partners (LPs), most of whom will be based out of India.

“Our fund intends to provide all our investors i.e., LPs, real time discretion to accept or reject each of our investment proposals,” said Sumit Mody who will head investments at the fund. The fund has already started shortlisting potential startups for funding.

It will raise its corpus in multiple rounds and expects to close the first round by March 2017, raising more than half the total amount.

The fund will seek to invest in about 30 healthcare startups under 3 years of operations with a qualified team, proof of concept, business and revenue traction. “We will invest in medical devices, SaaS, digital health and mobile health but will avoid getting into pharmacy or hospitals which need a lot more equity than we can provide,” explained Mody on the investment strategy of the fund.

The fund will look to invest up to Rs 5 crore in each company and will enter the company in the pre-Series A and Series A rounds.